Exxon Valdez

In March of 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in the Prince William Sound, Alaska. Initially bound for Long Beach, California, the oil tanker hit the Bligh reef and released an estimated 11 million of the ship's 55 million gallons of crude oil into the surrounding ocean. The spilled oil eventually covered 1300 miles of shoreline and amounted to the largest oil spill in history at that time. The spill was catastrophic to the surrounding ecosystems and had an immense environmental impact. The captain of the tanker, Joe Hazelwood, suggests he was wrongly blamed, and he did not offer an apology until twenty years later, in 2009.